The Three Keys To Success

Dick JonesDick Jones is the Founder & President of Simply Sales in Alpharetta, Ga. As a 4th generation sales professional, he has over 30 years of experience advising, coaching, consulting and workin

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Are you looking for ways to make your small business more successful? Have you tried things that simply haven’t worked out as you thought? Are you working longer hours because you have more to do than time to do it? There are many reasons why small business owners are successful, and probably a lot more reasons why they are not successful. It all comes down to three simple things.

First and foremost, you have to be organized. Plan your work and work your plan. Being organized is not only a time saver, but also provides a boost to your overall productivity. It’s amazing how unorganized many small business owners are. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Taking some time to get organized will save you a bunch of time. Some small business owners say they are too busy to get themselves organized. But these are the same people who spend far longer than they should to complete tasks and activities. Being organized is at the top of the list if you want business success.

The second key to success is self-discipline. If you are relying on others to motivate your performance, good luck in achieving success. Self-discipline is achieved by training yourself to do things in a habitual way. Making sure you are consistently managing your employees, spending the appropriate amount of time with your customers, reviewing financial performance, and planning for the future are a few of the many areas where you have to have self-discipline to continuously achieve success. When you get up each morning and look in the mirror, the person whose looking back at you is the one who has to make things happen.

The third key to success is something that most small business owners learn the hard way. As the old adage goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Most small businesses don’t achieve success without many failures. This requires an enormous amount of perseverance. Winston Churchill once said “success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” While very true, this speaks directly to perseverance as being a very important key to success. Learning from your mistakes, taking appropriate risks, and continuing to keep your “nose to the grindstone” no matter what happens will produce more success than giving up.

The combination of being organized, having self-discipline, and persevering in everything you do is very powerful. Being organized saves you time and provides more time to focus on getting the job done. Self-discipline puts success in your hands, not someone else. And perseverance means you are steadfast in doing something despite the difficulty or delay in achieving success. Make these three things a priority and you will be a successful small business owner.